Just in: 3 Americans and concertmaster are in the Sibelius finals
mainThe judges have spoken. The Helsinki 6 are:
Tjeknavorian, Emmanuel Austria
Yoshida, Minami Japan
Zhou Nancy USA
Kanagawa, Mayumi USA
Lee, Christel USA
and Starkloff, Friederike Germany, concertmaster of the NDR Philharmonie.
No Koreans in the final, and no Finns.
A Starkloff rising?
UPDATE:
Vesa Siren adds: The big surprise: amazing Kerson Leong took our breath away today but did NOT make to the the final round of Sibelius violin competition.
So, why not?
Who is Vesa Siren?
Sibelius scholar, chief critic of Helsingin Sanomat
Zeyu Victor Li and Richard Lin were not selected for finals after they both gave a very strong performance…
It’s really wonderful that a number of genuine musicians made it to the Finale of the Sibelius Competition. It’s a triumph of musicianship over showmanship. Bravo to all the competitors that were selected but also to those many talented violinists who didn’t make it.
I fully agree that this was a very “musicianship overshownship” jury and that is very refreshing. Kerson was overly self indulgent and showed far more music on his face than through the violin. He probably offended the Jury. The exception would be Nancy zhou who doesn’t show much if any depth or understanding but goes for fire power. For me most impressive is Christel Lee who is a very elegant poised player, but with smarts and heart.